those functions, including basic health care, that help people cope with difficulties in daily living that are associated with their actual or potential health or illness problems or the treatment thereof, and that require a substantial amount of scientific knowledge or technical skill , including all of the following: . . .” (italics added).].) The routine administration of insulin outside of hospitals and clinical settings, the Association observes, does not require substantial scientific knowledge or technical skill and is, in fact, typically accomplished by the patients themselves, including some children, or by friends and family members. We need not speak to the definition of nursing practice in order to resolve this case. However broadly the NPA may define the practice of nursing, and whatever the NPA may correlatively prohibit as unauthorized practice, the NPA expressly exempts from that prohibition “[t]he performance by any person of such duties as required in . . . carrying out medical orders prescribed by a licensed physician . . . .” (Bus. & Prof. Code, § 2727, subd. (e).) This medical- orders exception, as we shall explain, is broad enough to cover unlicensed school personnel who act as volunteers for spe cific students, at their parents‟ request, to carry out physicians‟ medical orders in accordance with section 49423 and its implementing regulations. 2. The Medical-orders Exception . The medical-orders exception provides in full as follows: “This chapter [the NPA] does not prohibit: [¶] . . . [¶] (e) The performance by any person of such duties as required in the physical care of a patient and/or carrying out medical orders prescribed by a licensed physician; provided, such person shall not in any way assume to practice as a professional, registered, graduate or trained nurse .” (Bus. & Prof. Code, § 2727, subd. (e), italics added.) The meaning of the first clause and its application to this case are clear: Unlicensed school personnel acting pursuant to section 49423 and its implementing regulations “perform[] . . . duties as required . . .
Chapter 20 – Provision of Healthcare Services, Desert/Mountain SELPA As of 11/1/2016 CAHELP Governance Council Approved
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